Although the ever-increasing number of cracks and potholes pock-marking our roads sometimes make them look more like country tracks they pose few problems for a world-renowned off-roader.

So it was that I found myself quietly hoping for some late autumnal snow to provide a sterner test for the Land Rover Defender when it rolled up on my driveway for a few days in late November.

No such luck though, the harshest the elements threw at me and this most famous of 4x4s was a mild frost one morning.

No doubt the snow will come when I’m sat behind the wheel of a totally inappropriate, but very colourful, supermini or an equally ill-suited rear-wheel drive premium German saloon!

In the meantime I had to content myself with driving the Defender around very much out of its comfort zone – on my daily commute to work, the school run and the weekly shop.

And I’d recommend anyone under the age of, say, 30 to 35, who has only ever driven modern, comfortable cars with all mod cons to go and do the same – then they’d know what those of us with a few more miles on the clock had to contend with when we started driving.

Because there is little doubt that this is very much back-to- basics motoring.

The Defender name may not have appeared until the early Nineties but this car still bears much of the DNA of the 1948 original from which it is derived – and the driving experience has probably not changed much either.

You need a few muscles to simply steer and change gear, the heater is either arctic or tropical with nothing in between and turning the windscreen wipers on causes interference on the radio – which only gets a good signal, anyway, if you get out and pull up the aerial... by hand!

The rear windows have to be opened manually by sliding them back and forth and the sunroof on my test car, again manually operated, collected condensation at an alarming rate which it then regularly dripped onto my head.

Elbow room’s surprisingly tight for a big motor, the steering wheel doesn’t adjust, the front seats only slide forwards and backwards and there’s not a single airbag.

While the huge suspension and elevated road clearance are great for climbing mountains and taking on the Dakar rally they also mean the Defender does lean a lot in bends.

And the 2.2 litre diesel engine may have enough pulling power to shift a small train but it is noisy and uneconomical, offering just 27.7 miles per gallon on average with carbon emissions of 269g/km.

Regardless of all these foibles, though, there is still a real sense of excitement and fun to be driving the Defender.

And that’s because this is a proper Land Rover; the one we always picture whenever the name is mentioned; the one that has been driven by the Queen, James Bond and Lara Croft; the one that has become a genuine automotive icon.

And a lot of its charm and appeal actually lies in its down-to-earth simplicity.

The basic construction and absence of all manner of computerised, electronic gadgets mean its easy to maintain and you’ll regularly see examples on the road dating back several decades.

And in this range-topping XS guise you do get a few creature comforts like aircon, electric front windows, and a stereo which, although fiddly to use, at least boasts a USB socket for your iPod.

It may cope much better with rutted farm fields, arid desert and icy tundra – but you still feel pretty cool driving along your local A-roads in the Defender.

And, with Land Rover finally consigning the much-loved current model to history next December, to eventually be replace by an all-new namesake, there’ll probably be quite a clamour for them next year as they’re destined to become classic collectors’ items.